Attorney General Martha Coakley vowed to defend the rights of fallen soldiers and their family’s rights to grieve peacefully, throwing her support behind a federal lawsuit targeting a controversial church known for taunting soldiers’ families during their heartbreaking funerals.

“We also join this case to help protect this law to assure that people in Massachusetts continue to have the ability to bury their family members in peace,” Coakley said, refering to a state law barring protests at funerals that she hopes will be bolstered by a Maryland family’s lawsuit.

Coakley joins 17 attorneys general from across the country supporting a lawsuit filed by a Maryland soldier’s father who endured merciless protesting by Westboro Baptist Church members as they held up signs saying, “Thank God for dead soldiers,” “God hates you” and “You are going to hell.” The group also appeared at several Massachusetts military funerals, claiming U.S. soldiers’ deaths are because of God’s wrath over the acceptance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder, father of Matthew Snyder, a 20-year old Maryland Marine who was killed in Iraq, filed a civil lawsuit in 2006 against Fred Phelps, founder of the Kansas-based, radical Westboro Baptist Church for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and publication of private facts.

Shirley Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church told the Herald, “Martha Coakley needs to get busy; the stakes are high and the destruction is imminent.”